New: Machine Learning for Cutting Tools and Feeds and Speeds

These days, it seems like Machine Learning is being talked about everywhere. Self-driving cars, machines beating humans at every game, Google search results change based on machine learning–artificial intelligence has become much more common that it was in the past.

There’s a reason for that: Machine Learning allows software to learn new tricks without requiring programming. That’s a very useful trick because it makes the software tremendously more flexible and able to adapt to the needs of its users.

G-Wizard Calculator has had Machine Algorithms for quite a while. They’re the central engine that drives the CADCAM Wizards feature. Machine Learning comes into play there because what CADCAM Wizards do is take a few basic pieces of information and use them together with the core Feeds and Speeds Calculation Engine to find the optimal combination of parameters for a complete cut “recipe”.

CADCAM Wizards are very powerful as a result, and unique in the industry. They’re capable of running anywhere from hundreds to thousands of scenarios through the Feeds and Speeds Engine to get the result back. When was the last time you remember having investigated hundreds of different parameter combinations to optimize your Feeds and Speeds?

Nobody has time for that, but if you’ll let G-Wizard do the job for you, it all happens very quickly and you get the benefit of those optimized results.

Why use G-Wizard if you have to look up the Manufacturer’s Data, anyway?

First, as I’ve mentioned, there’s more to Feeds and Speeds than the Manufacturer’s Data and our users were getting tremendous results just using the defaults. But, the reason to do it is that it’s easy to do and it can potentially give you even more aggressive Feeds and Speeds. After all, each manufacturer has their own special features for their tooling, and some tooling is capable of more performance than any generic description can account for.

To accomplish that, we added the notion of “Tooling Families” to G-Wizard. Here’s the new Manufacturer’s Data area in the latest versions of G-Wizard:

New Tool Family selector in the Mfg’s Data area…

There’s a new Tool Family selector in the Mfg’s Data area. By default it’s set to “Generic”, which causes everything to operate just as G-Wizard has. But, if you click the dropdown arrow, you get the Tool Family popup:

Tool Family popup…

The Tool Family popup selects the family on the left, and on the right you get what we’re calling Feeds and Speeds “Examples.” The Examples are the Machine Learning aspect of the feature. You can enter as much data as you like, and G-Wizard learns how to compute better and better Feeds and Speeds from that data. Best of all, the examples are saved as Preferences, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them.

There are two kinds of examples:

Surface Speed Examples: You provide a material and a surface speed for each example.

Chipload Examples: You provide material, tool diameter, and chipload for each example.

So what’s the difference between the two? How far can G-Wizard go with fewer examples?

The Machine Learning algorithms give G-Wizard the ability to learn, but it can only learn so much. For example, it’s not going to try to extrapolate the learning to new materials. If you have only provided examples in Aluminum, it’s not going to try extrapolate that to Tool Steel or Stainless Steel. There are just too many differences, and in fact, many times, manufacturers will direct you to different tooling lines for different materials.

So, you’ll need to have at least one Surface Speed Example and one Chipload Example for any material you want to work with.

What about the Chipload Examples?

Here, G-Wizard works with the available Examples and its own notion of a default cutter. As mentioned, it needs some Examples with the same material.

Ideally, it finds Examples that bracket the diameter of the cutter you need Feeds and Speeds for. Failing that, it needs to extrapolate using the default numbers together with whatever Examples are available. If the Examples are too different from the desired cutter, they will have very minimal input to the Feeds and Speeds. If they’re nearby, they may totally control the calculation. In other words, the Examples are teaching G-Wizard how to optimize a broader and broader array of cutters for best Feeds and Speeds.

Think about Examples like this–use them as you need them. Use them on demand. In other words, if you start a new material, enter an Example for that material–both Surface Speed and Chipload. If you’ve got an Example or two for the material, and you aren’t getting as much juice to the Feeds and Speeds as you’d like, add a Chipload Example for the particular cutter you’re using. This keeps the effort to a minimum while maximizing results.